Comment on viruses
MindTraveller@lemmy.ca 3 months agoI’m not joking, I genuinely disagree with the mainstream classification of viruses and Commander Data is genuinely an important cultural symbol for these issues.
Comment on viruses
MindTraveller@lemmy.ca 3 months agoI’m not joking, I genuinely disagree with the mainstream classification of viruses and Commander Data is genuinely an important cultural symbol for these issues.
flora_explora@beehaw.org 3 months ago
Ah OK, I couldn’t tell. So what would you say would be a better definition and what would you like to see included? I’m not really familiar with Data, maybe some background would be helpful…
MindTraveller@lemmy.ca 3 months ago
Life is that which acts to secure its own existence or that of its kind.
flora_explora@beehaw.org 3 months ago
Hm, I see how this would be universal. But at how do you define ‘secure its own existence’? Is the sun a living being because it keep on burning? Are some chemical reactions that preserve the environment they are happening in living beings? Are any cyclical reactions or maybe even the nutrient cycles or water cycles living beings? The more you get into the details of what life is and isn’t, the more you see that it probably isn’t a binary distinction between living and not living.
MindTraveller@lemmy.ca 3 months ago
Yeah. Stars and fire are alive. They have homeostasis. They reproduce. They can even grow and evolve. You can give birth to a little fire with a spark and some tinder, and when it’s older you can feed it kindling. Eventually when it’s big and strong, you can give it a big log to eat. That seems alive to me.
I don’t really get how the water cycle acts to secure its own existence, but if you can explain it you’ll persuade me it’s alive.